camping blessings.

It finally arrived…

Summer! And Camping! And Smores!

I could seriously almost not wait for this campout to come. I was like a kid on Christmas morning! Hurry up and get here! And it arrived, and came, and went, and was glorious, absolutely wonderful fun.

This is Sam’s pre-game nap.

Anyway, we loaded up and headed down to the Kenai Peninsula where we prayed the rain would go away. We rolled in to our site and took in all the wonder. It wasn’t rainy, it wasn’t too windy, and the sun looked promising. We set up shop, built a fire, strolled around, played in the water (or Ruby did). Our friends, the Turners, and then later, the Burtchs, rolled on down too. And the camping trip was game on!

The next morning, we all rolled out of various truck camper beds and tent sleeping bags and headed in to the glorious day. It was fantastic with little babies and toddlers and campfires and smores and laughter and friendship and some of my favorite people.

The next day was more of the absolute wonderful same. With Millie, and Peter, and Harper running around. And canoe trips. And rock skipping. And maybe a lunch time smore. And Charlotte and Sam eating dirt and being cute. And just everything fun and beautiful.

One of my favorite things to do in this world is go camping. I love the trips with activity and hiking and harvesting and adventure. But some of my absolute favorite camping trips are just spent around a fire with good friends and family and food and lots of laughter and fun and happiness. This weekend was just that. And so good for my soul. Nature is my busyness remedy when the phone goes off and conversation is genuine and it’s easy to be present in those moments.

(photo by Heidi Burtch!)

(photo by Heidi Burtch!)

(photo by Heidi Burtch!)

(photo by Heidi Burtch!)

(photo by Heidi Burtch!)

(Photo by Ben)

On the way home, Ben and I remembered a time in the not so distant past where we dreamed about having a bigger family and taking our babies on camping trips and showing them this beautiful state. And so we thanked God and counted our blessing of Sam and our family and then I promptly fell asleep with Sam snoozing from his car seat and Ben drove us home.